Skip to content

CRB rejects move on solid waste

A proposal for a regional strategy on solid waste landed in the garbage heap after losing a close vote at the Capital Region board.

A proposal for a regional strategy on solid waste landed in the garbage heap after losing a close vote at the Capital Region board.

The motion would have had the board invest $80,000 in a study to look for regional solutions for solid waste management.

The plan lost a close vote Thursday, despite 13 of the 25 municipalities voting in favour, because the board requires a super-majority with 17 municipalities that represent 75 per cent of the region's population.

Devon Mayor Anita Fisher championed the idea and said she wants the region to come up with broader solutions to solid waste.

She said while the region has a good handle on residential waste, there are issues around industrial and commercial waste that require regional solutions.

"They do go across jurisdictional boundaries; large corporations and the big box stores that could be doing a better job of recycling."

Fisher said she was surprised the motion failed, because it only committed the board to studying the idea.

"I knew it was going to be a close vote. Unfortunately it was close the other way."

St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse said he was disappointed it was defeated because it means the region can't move forward on the problem.

"Leaders have to have a vision for the future and without being able to look at the information we can't create the vision for the future."

Crouse said he is confident the issue will return.

"Long-term it was the right thing, but it wasn't passed and we will move on and there will likely be another pass at it sometime in the future."

Bigger issues

Morinville Mayor Lloyd Bertschi said he believes the idea is worth looking at, but the CRB has bigger issues in front of it today.

"I believe it can wait a year or two while we deal with the issues that we were mandated to deal with."

The province insisted the board deal with specific issues up front, like land use. Plans have been completed, but Bertschi said there are still a lot of important details to work out.

Bertschi said the Roseridge Regional Waste Commission does an excellent job handling the waste for the Sturgeon area and he can't see it becoming a pressing issue.

"The sub region has done a great job of making sure we have that issue well in hand."

Sturgeon County Mayor Don Rigney said beyond simply dealing with more pressing issues he is not convinced that a regional approach to solid waste would work.

"If we can find a better, cheaper source of doing that then we should, but I haven't seen that here," he said. "It just didn't seem to be driven by a good business case."

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks